Letter tray



Nov. 8, 1938.

T. HEARN ET AL LETTER TRAY Filed D90. 6, 1957 IN VENTORS.

3 m MN m ZZ SR AMA W, 61 0 N 4 m Patented Nov. 8, 1938' UNITED STATES LETTER TRAY Thomas Hearn, Ludlow, Ky., and Grosvenor S. McKee, Cincinnati, Ohio, assignors to The Globe-Wernicke Company, Norwood, Ohio, a

corporation of Ohio Application December 6, 1937, Serial No. 178,274

3 Claims.

This invention relates to letter trays such as are used in business ofiices as a place in which to place incoming or outgoing letters.

In practice it is often desirable to leaf through a stack of letters or papers in a tray of this kind in order to pick out a certain paper which may be in the middle or near the bottom of the pile, and for this reason many attempts have been made to make such letter trays in such manner that the papers therein will be more readily accessible.

It is an object of our invention to provide a letter tray which will render the papers placed therein readily accessible for sorting or for searching for a paper which may be in the middle of the pile, or for removing the entire stack of papers.

It is another object of our invention to provide a device as above outlined which will be simple and cheap to manufacture, and not of unsightly appearance.

These and other objects of our invention which will be described hereinafter, or which will be apparent to one skilled in the art upon reading these specifications, we accomplish by that certain construction and arrangement of parts of which we shall now describe two embodiments.

Reference is made to the drawing forming a part hereof, and in which:

Figure l is a perspective view of a letter tray provided with one embodiment of our invention.

Fig. 2 is a longitudinally central cross-sectional view thereof taken on the line 2-2 of Fig. 1, and showing a stack of papers in our device.

Fig. 3 is a perspective view showing a modification of the baflle.

Briefly in the practice of our invention we provide a letter tray as shown in Fig. 1, having a bottom l0, longitudinal walls II, and end walls [2' and I3. We prefer to cut one of the end walls away as shown at I4, in Fig. 1, so that said end wall l2 will be at least in part, of less height than the remaining walls in the tray. This feature alone is not new, but it is of particular advantage in connection with our invention.

Extending transversely of the tray and pivoted in the opposed longitudinal walls II, we provide a bafile member for the purpose of keeping papers in the tray off the bottom at one end.

In the embodiment of Figures 1 and we have shown a wire baffle pivoted in the said walls II by means of the portions 15 extending into holes or recesses in the walls H. We provide small offset portions at IE to keep the bafiie from slipping endwise out of position. Connected to the offset portions l6 are the transverse portions 11, whichare joined by a U-shaped member l8.

It will be noted that the baflle is pivoted toward one end of the tray from the center thereof, and that it extends generally in the direction of the center. The pivots I5 are mounted above the bottom of the trays and the member l8 may rest on the bottom. It will further be noted that the pivot point is toward that end wall which has been cut away, which will be clear from a consideration of Fig. 1. Normally we intend that letters shall be placed in the tray on top of the bafile whereby the ends of the papers adjacent. the wall l3 will rest on the bottom, while the endsadjacent the wall l2 will be elevated from the bottom and will be more readily accessible by virtue of the cut away portion M in the end wall I 2. If desired, the baffle member may be used as a hold-down device. For example, in ofi'ices where windows are open, and the wind is blowing, the problem of keeping the letters from blowing out of the tray may become as important as that of providing ready access thereto.

We have shown in Fig. 3, a modified baflle indicated generally at [9, formed from a plate of metal which may be reversely bent as at 20, for reinforcement, and provide it with a finger hole 2|. For pivoting purposes the member l9 may be rolled at one end as indicated at 22, about a pin or rod 23. In use in the trade the rod 23 occupies the position of the members l5 of the other form of bafile, and the portion 20 extends toward the center as does the portion I8 of the other embodiment. The uses of this embodiment are similar to those described above.

It will be seen that we have provided means in a letter tray for providing ready access for papers therein which are simple, cheap and not unattractive in appearance. It will be clear that modifications may be made in our preferred embodiments without departing from the spirit of the invention, and that therefore we do not wish to be limited otherwise than as pointed out in the claims which follow.

Having thus described our invention, what we claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent is:

1. A letter tray comprising a shallow rectangular box, and a bafile pivotally mounted at a point above the bottom of said box and toward one end thereof from the center and extending toward the center of said box, the end wall of said tray toward which said pivot is displaced being at least in part of less height than the other walls,

3. A letter tray comprising a shallow rectangular box, and a plate bafile extending thereacross, said bafiie comprising a sheet like member having means whereby it is pivoted to opposed walls of said tray above the bottom and toward one end thereof from the center, said plate extending I from said pivot toward the center of the tray, the

end wall toward which said pivot is displaced being at least in part of less height than the other walls.

THOMAS HEARN. GROSVENOR S. MCKEE. 

